The school, formerly known as East China College of political science and law, was founded in June 1952 by the merger of the law department, political department and Social Department of nine universities, including St. John's University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Soochow University, Xiamen University, Hujiang University, Anhui University, Shanghai University and Sinian University. In 1958, the school was incorporated into the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; in 1963, it was re established and enrolled in the next year; in 1966, it stopped enrolling students and was withdrawn in 1972; in March 1979, it was resumed for the second time with the approval of the State Council. In 2000, the school was put under the administration of Shanghai by the Ministry of justice. In March 2007, with the approval of the Ministry of education, the University changed its name to East China University of political science and law.As of November 2019, the university has two campuses, Changning and Songjiang, covering an area of more than 750000 square meters; it has 22 Colleges (departments) and 24 undergraduate majors; it has one national key discipline, two first-class discipline doctoral programs and six first-class discipline master programs; it has more than 1300 teaching staff and more than 18000 students.